{"id":1786,"slug":"quarantine-zendesk-67-percent-prefer-self-service","title":"QUARANTINE — \"67% of customers prefer self-service over speaking with a live agent\" (attributed to Zendesk)","kind":"research-notes","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["editorial-discipline","self-service-customer-preference"],"reference_body":"**Quarantined claim:** \"67% of customers prefer self-service over speaking with a live agent,\" attributed to Zendesk.\n\n**Reason for quarantine:** Traces to vendor (Zendesk) secondary citations and blog repetition; could not tie to an independent, current primary Zendesk source.\n\n**Why we keep this note:** The figure circulates heavily in SMB-marketing content. When a client or a competing agency cites it, we need an internal record of *why* we don't. Replace in our own work with [[hbr-81-percent-attempt-self-service-first-2017]] (independent, primary, current).\n\n**Source-incentive note:** Zendesk sells customer-service software — direct incentive to inflate self-service-preference figures.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"hbr-81-percent-attempt-self-service-first-2017","title":"HBR (Dixon et al., 2017) — 81% of all customers attempt self-service before reaching out to a live representative","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-searchable-structured-catalogue-working-tool-june-2026","title":"Research brief: the searchable, structured catalogue as a working tool — when records-not-prose pays off (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:12.711Z","updated_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:12.711Z"}